New public health campaign against sugar.

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When my dd was younger, I frequented parenting message boards and if you gave your child fruit juice or chocolate milk... anything other than human breastmilk or water then you were pretty much viewed as a monster. That was 15 years ago. The demonizing of products by my parenting peers did not make me give them up. I probably limited use though.
I think for me a campaign that talked about cost would be more effective. " The Average Jones family has this much budgeted for food. These drinks cost this much more than water. They are high calorie and low nutrition. You can get all this food for the cost of these drinks. Water is cheap and good for you. The Average Jones family saved $50 a week just by drinking less sugary drinks and increasing water consumption. Their children had great dental checkups this year. Because their kids were drinking less calories their weight dropped to a healthy level. They had more money to do all this great stuff."

I think the link between consuming massive calories and obesity is pretty clear and compelling. So on that basis, consuming more calories than necessary should be avoided. On the diabetes front, I will speak from my work experience-- I've been a researcher in diabetes since 1998, and have published a number of articles on this. The issue is that your body is not really designed to consume huge amounts of any type of sugar. It's designed to take in normal mounts. So, eating an orange is perfectly fine, but drinking OJ is difficult for your body. As you do this over the long term, your beta cells (sit on the pancreas and secrete insulin) will die off. Why? Because although they secrete insulin, high levels of insulin are acutally deterimenal to beta cells, and will kill them off. This, in conjunction with a generally sedentary lifestyle, will lead to Type 2 diabetes.

I agree, but then why when we/I tell people here on MFP that moderation is what they should do with all foods/drinks(unless medical issues), then go on to say if you consume anything with evil sugars in it you will gain weight, get heart disease, etc.....this happens every time!!!

They keep saying that you get heart disease if you consume sugary drinks/foods, yet I consume these things and I have reverse my heart disease. I wonder how I did that.....I must be medical miracle!!!

I think recommendations are to avoid excessive sugar consumption, not all - only on MFP do I see the extremes bandied about. In the U.S. they haven't set an upper limit for sugar consumption but some countries determined 90g-100g is reasonable for a 2,000 calorie diet.

If health is a concern I think a prudent person would err on the side of caution and make some adjustments to their diet if they regularly exceed those limits instead of blowing them off. At least until some of the results from ongoing research come in and we know more either way.

I think the link between consuming massive calories and obesity is pretty clear and compelling. So on that basis, consuming more calories than necessary should be avoided. On the diabetes front, I will speak from my work experience-- I've been a researcher in diabetes since 1998, and have published a number of articles on this. The issue is that your body is not really designed to consume huge amounts of any type of sugar. It's designed to take in normal mounts. So, eating an orange is perfectly fine, but drinking OJ is difficult for your body. As you do this over the long term, your beta cells (sit on the pancreas and secrete insulin) will die off. Why? Because although they secrete insulin, high levels of insulin are acutally deterimenal to beta cells, and will kill them off. This, in conjunction with a generally sedentary lifestyle, will lead to Type 2 diabetes.

It would be a lot better if they swapped "contribute to" for "cause" IMO.

"Cause" is a bit strong.

I see this quite a bit with articles aimed at a lay audience. Some writers figure that lay people won't understand terms such as "are associated with" or "correlate with", and dumbing down can lead to a loss of the correct meaning.

The thing is, consumption of anything without limit can contribute to obesity, "empty" calories or not.
Yet here we are, on MFP where it's always sugar that's singled out, even when the concrete named examples often have more fat calories than anything.

I think this campaign were great if it said "obesity can lead to.." all the things listed. Sugar is not the only culprit. I got nice and plump eating too much of everything else...I rarely consumed sugary things.

I agree, but then why when we/I tell people here on MFP that moderation is what they should do with all foods/drinks(unless medical issues), then go on to say if you consume anything with evil sugars in it you will gain weight, get heart disease, etc.....this happens every time!!!

Don't think the guideline said don't eat anything with sugar just gave guidelines for what the analysis considered an appropriate amount

Fact is the sugary drinks mentioned are some of the fastest, ways to get a bunch of nutrient poor calories in your body.

I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so this is all theoretical for me. My weakness is savory foods.

In the summer when it gets hot, I need more water. I started drinking electrolyte replacement things on really warm and sunny days. At first I'd drink a Gatoraid, but it had 200 calories for a small bottle, that's as much as I burn cycling 7.5 miles around the lake. I realized what was going on and changed to Nuun tabs, more like 5 cals, and seemingly more effective. The point to this story is how easy it is to drink more calories than you need or realize. If your goal is to lose weight, this is obviously something to avoid; if your goal is to raise healthy children, calorie-dense drinks are a habit you don't want to encourage.

I think the link between consuming massive calories and obesity is pretty clear and compelling. So on that basis, consuming more calories than necessary should be avoided. On the diabetes front, I will speak from my work experience-- I've been a researcher in diabetes since 1998, and have published a number of articles on this. The issue is that your body is not really designed to consume huge amounts of any type of sugar. It's designed to take in normal mounts. So, eating an orange is perfectly fine, but drinking OJ is difficult for your body. As you do this over the long term, your beta cells (sit on the pancreas and secrete insulin) will die off. Why? Because although they secrete insulin, high levels of insulin are acutally deterimenal to beta cells, and will kill them off. This, in conjunction with a generally sedentary lifestyle, will lead to Type 2 diabetes.

What about in conjunction with a generally active lifestyle?

Type 2 diabetes is the result of two issues (as opposed to Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes). In Type 2, you both don't produce enough insulin, and your cells are not responsive to the insulin (called insulin resistance). Recall that insulin is the hormone which allows glucose to cross the cell membrane; it's like a carrier for glucose. Without it, you would starve to death no matter what you eat, because fuel (glucose) would not cross the cell membrane and enter the cells to be used as energy. This issue of your cells being less responsive is called insulin resistance. Due to this, the body is forced to produce more insulin in a Type 2 diabetic in the hopes that enough will allow glucose to enter the cells. Exercise increases the cells sensitivity to insulin. So, when you exercise, you counteract insulin resistance, and would need less insulin to be effective. To answer your question, having an active lifestyle will slow down developing Type 2 diabetes.

I think the link between consuming massive calories and obesity is pretty clear and compelling. So on that basis, consuming more calories than necessary should be avoided. On the diabetes front, I will speak from my work experience-- I've been a researcher in diabetes since 1998, and have published a number of articles on this. The issue is that your body is not really designed to consume huge amounts of any type of sugar. It's designed to take in normal mounts. So, eating an orange is perfectly fine, but drinking OJ is difficult for your body. As you do this over the long term, your beta cells (sit on the pancreas and secrete insulin) will die off. Why? Because although they secrete insulin, high levels of insulin are acutally deterimenal to beta cells, and will kill them off. This, in conjunction with a generally sedentary lifestyle, will lead to Type 2 diabetes.

What about in conjunction with a generally active lifestyle?

Type 2 diabetes is the result of two issues (as opposed to Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes). In Type 2, you both don't produce enough insulin, and your cells are not responsive to the insulin (called insulin resistance). Recall that insulin is the hormone which allows glucose to cross the cell membrane; it's like a carrier for glucose. Without it, you would starve to death no matter what you eat, because fuel (glucose) would not cross the cell membrane and enter the cells to be used as energy. This issue of your cells being less responsive is called insulin resistance. Due to this, the body is forced to produce more insulin in a Type 2 diabetic in the hopes that enough will allow glucose to enter the cells. Exercise increases the cells sensitivity to insulin. So, when you exercise, you counteract insulin resistance, and would need less insulin to be effective. To answer your question, having an active lifestyle will slow down developing Type 2 diabetes.

I think the link between consuming massive calories and obesity is pretty clear and compelling. So on that basis, consuming more calories than necessary should be avoided. On the diabetes front, I will speak from my work experience-- I've been a researcher in diabetes since 1998, and have published a number of articles on this. The issue is that your body is not really designed to consume huge amounts of any type of sugar. It's designed to take in normal mounts. So, eating an orange is perfectly fine, but drinking OJ is difficult for your body. As you do this over the long term, your beta cells (sit on the pancreas and secrete insulin) will die off. Why? Because although they secrete insulin, high levels of insulin are acutally deterimenal to beta cells, and will kill them off. This, in conjunction with a generally sedentary lifestyle, will lead to Type 2 diabetes.

What about in conjunction with a generally active lifestyle?

In addition, genetics plays a huge role. To use an analogy, genetics basically loads the gun, but it is your lifestyle which pulls the trigger. As I'm predisposed to diabetes (my mother and my father died from complications due to diabetes, my grandparents had diabetes, my oldest brother has diabetes), I have a huge incentive to eat well (meaning reduced spikes in glucose in my bloodstream) and to exercise, in order to stave off diabetes.

I think the link between consuming massive calories and obesity is pretty clear and compelling. So on that basis, consuming more calories than necessary should be avoided. On the diabetes front, I will speak from my work experience-- I've been a researcher in diabetes since 1998, and have published a number of articles on this. The issue is that your body is not really designed to consume huge amounts of any type of sugar. It's designed to take in normal mounts. So, eating an orange is perfectly fine, but drinking OJ is difficult for your body. As you do this over the long term, your beta cells (sit on the pancreas and secrete insulin) will die off. Why? Because although they secrete insulin, high levels of insulin are acutally deterimenal to beta cells, and will kill them off. This, in conjunction with a generally sedentary lifestyle, will lead to Type 2 diabetes.

What about in conjunction with a generally active lifestyle?

In addition, genetics plays a huge role. To use an analogy, genetics basically loads the gun, but it is your lifestyle which pulls the trigger. As I'm predisposed to diabetes (my mother and my father died from complications due to diabetes, my grandparents had diabetes, my oldest brother has diabetes), I have a huge incentive to eat well (meaning reduced spikes in glucose in my bloodstream) and to exercise, in order to stave off diabetes.

Governments are very ineffective at convincing people to refrain from consuming the food products which the government promotes the production of. For instance, the U.S. promotes the production of sugar, so sugar is cheap in the U.S. and American food producers ship sugar-laden food worldwide and it's cheap for all. Britain would more effectively lobby the U.S. and E.U. to stop subsidizing sugar. If Brexit occurs, sugar prices in Britain could increase substantially because Britain must import and Britain can, if it wants, impose stiff tariffs on sugar to raise the price. However, if Britain allows cheap foreign sugar to enter and then tries to convince people with brains that seek the endorphin response to cheap sugary foods, Britain will fail.

In some sense. I have the propensity for it. If I maintain my lifestyle and exercise level, I should hold it off. But the reality is that when I'm 80 I likely won't keep up the lifestyle and exercise regimen I do now. So, at some point I will develop diabetes. However, as diabetes is a long-term illness, it will not likely kill me before I die of something else first.

As mentioned earlier, genetics plays a big factor in diabetes development and progression. Eating poorly and not exercising does not *cause* diabetes, at least not in the sense. But if you are genetically predisposed, and then eat poorly and don't exercise, you will develop it.